FSFE Newsletter - November 2010

This edition explains how we counter the lobby work of
proprietary organisations at the European level, what we do at the United
Nations level to inform more people about the dangers of software patents, what
we are doing to get rid of non-free software advertisement on public websites,
and what you can do to make a change.

But not everyone out there likes Open Standards. The Business Software Alliance
(BSA), a lobby group for proprietary software, is pressuring the European
Commission to remove the last traces of support for Open Standards from the
latest version of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF).

We obtained a copy of a letter
sent to the Commission by the BSA. We analysed their arguments and
explained why their claims are false, and why Open Standards are key to
interoperability and competition in the European software market. In short we
dealt with the following points:

WIPO - Fighting software patents at WIPO

But why wait until we have to deal with topics at the European level? We
always try to fix them at the root, so we work in some committees of the World
Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). From October 11-15, WIPO's Standing
Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) had its 15th session. We participate
there because the committee discusses questions related to patents and
standards.

Our main goals in the committee are to convince WIPO member states and WIPO
staff that software should not be patentable, explain to them the relation
between standards and patents from the perspective of Free Software, and make
them understand how rules must be shaped so that their countries can get the
most out of Free Software.

In our most important statement "Statement on the relation
between standards and patents at WIPO SCP/15" we explain why software
standards must be implementable in any software or business model, including
those based on Free Software. We argued that when patents are included in
software standards, they need to be licensed in a manner that does not restrict
their implementation in any way. Besides the absence of any other restriction,
that means royalty-free licensing to any party implementing the standard.

Highly motivated volunteers searched the internet for public websites that
advertise for non-free software and reported 2162 institutions. Some of
them, like Massimo Barbieri and Lucas Bickel individually reported more than
350! Alessandro Albini, Rainer Schmitz, and Павел Харитонов (Pavel Kharitonov)
also made a remarkable contribution in reporting around 50 institutions
each.

But we will not stop with a list of institutions. In the coming weeks, we
will send letters to the
institutions to draw their attention to their unfair advertising. In the
name of the signatories of the petition, we will ask the
institutions to either remove any recommendation for non-free software from
their website, or give a choice of several programs.

Get active: stamp out the ads!

Wherever you are, whatever time you have, you can contribute to the removal
of non-free software adverts on public website. The amazing work of the ads
hunters and
our translators has laid a firm foundation for the next phase. Now it is
up to you to enable us to get things done. You can make a difference! Help us
to translate the letter into
missing languages or donate to the PDF
readers campaign fund to help cover the 1600 EUR for postage and the
extra costs of administration to deliver the messages throughout Europe. Help
us stamp out the ads!